Picking up Chinese Food

I went to pick up Chinese food from the corner store for dinner tonight. I was a little early, and I had to wait a little bit while our order was filled. It was your typical Chinese takeout place, with peeling laminate countertops, a red/gold Chinese calendar, and a collection of forlorn pieces of furniture in the corner.

There was a little girl, probably about Yuna's age, about 5 or 6 standing behind the counter. She was scribbling absentmindedly on a tall stack of menus. Her older sister started talking to her in English, offering up a Rubik's Cube, almost fully completed. The little girl's eyes lit up, and started to reach for the toy from her sister while excitedly asking about how she'd gotten so far.

What appeared to be the girls' parents were operating the restaurant. It was a family affair, as is often the case. The dad was busy poring over the flaming hot wok, filling the order sheets pinned up by his wife who operated the phones while also busily keeping a steady flow of spring rolls in the fryer. The crew was rounded out by the older daughter, who appeared to be in middle school age, perhaps, cashing out orders and occasionally taking orders when her mom was busy putting together a food order.

I think about the parallels between this little girl, very beautiful, standing behind the counter on a sweltering Sunday afternoon, and my daughter at home. Both are surely beloved by her parents. This girl maybe doesn't have her parents able to spend the same resources, time and finances to fill up her summer with various camps, lessons and other pursuits. But they are at least very much cared for and loved, far from neglected even if one set of parents are not in a place to spend the family resources advancing the child's education during the summer months.

It's unlikely that this family lives in Delmar, with its relatively higher cost of rent/real estate, and corresponding reward: excellent public schools. It's more likely that they live in Albany, or perhaps even further away, with less than stellar public schools and higher crime rates. But again, this girl and her sister are the reason why the parents wake up in the wee hours of every morning, and spend the whole day on their feet, busily feeding the Delmar area with its demand for cheap and quick orders of cashew chicken and beef with asparagus for busy families.

They could be classmates in school next year, bunkmates in camp in the future, and their lives are very different right now. I hope that this litte girl will have the kind of opportunities later in her life, and her daughter or son will not have to spend her afternoons behind the counter at the family's restaurant on Sunday afternoons, and instead she will spend it at the town pool splashing with her friends, going to the park to listen to a children's concert, or taking piano or tennis lessons. This is, in essence the American Dream, that the next generation has it better because of your sacrifice and hard work. And I feel lucky to live in this country that this is still a possibility, or even a reality. And I feel good about my $30 dinner order, surely way more than our family can possibly consume for dinner tonight, and more than likely to provide a few lunches for me at work. My family gets a quick and delicious (albeit greasy) dinner and this family takes a small step towards a better future for these two children.